Reports have been mixed. 4 bar connections are playable, but rarely seen. 3 bars can go either way and anything below that is unplayable. The guys from Dream Cancel sent an email to SNK and Atlus, I believe saying that the game is great, but if they want the game to survive commercially the netcode needs to be patched.

Had this baby preordered for a while. Got it today and I love it. I've mostly been practicing combos in tutorial mode. I want to get a feel for the characters I want to use before I play against the computer or go online.

Yeah, the system definitely takes some getting used to. What team are you using? I've been using Kensou/Joe/Kyo, but I'll probably replace Joe. Not sure since his projectile is pretty good, but his AA leaves more to be desired.

The main difference I've noticed between KoF and any other fighter is that you can press button way slower and still chain attacks together, which is something that's been messing with me a lot.

I've been messing with a ton of characters because there's so many that I think are cool, but right now I'm thinking of running King or Joe/Yuri/Takuma

I agree with Fadedsun. 4 bar connections are great, but they are rare and almost always get bumped down to 3 when you join the lobby. 4 bar connections probably need to be in fairly close proximity for it to be classified 4 bars. 4 bars converted to 3 bars upon joining the lobby is also pretty good. Anyone used to playing online probably won't have a problem with this either. 3 bars is hit or miss, but generally has been hit for me. Still perfectly playable but if it teeters closer to 2 bars, the connection will suck. 2 or below is godawful. Input delay feels like half a fucking second.

Also ranked is kind of broken. They need to fix how they go about setting up ranked. When you search for ranked matches, you can search by signal, but if a match is found, you cannot back out of it without disconnecting or dashboarding. You cannot see the signal until you join. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if you could set parameters when you create a ranked match like you can player match. As it stands, you can create a ranked match and that's it. If some fuckwit with a shitty connection or someone from another country joins your game, there's nothing you can do but dashboard or disconnect. I had some guy from like France join my ranked because he didn't set search parameters and it was annoying and unplayable.

Game still fucking rocks though. Everyone mostly does player matches instead where you can control who you play.

After months of not being able to access my PS3, I've finally got it and it's back online even! If aynone wants to throw down in KoF, I'm up.

Still deciding on a team, I want to use Terry and Kim but I'm terrible at rushdown in this game. Leona/Clark/Ash seems like a good fit for my playstyle, but Leona feels more awkward then she did in XII. Raiden also feels less fun then he did in XII...maybe it's just the new system.

Glad to see everyone's enjoying the game. It's definitely a lot of fun to play and customize your characters colors if you're into that sort of thing (saw a video where Kula looked like Zero Suit Samus - pretty awesome imo). I love the little things like VS mode against computer with random stages and random computer characters, every battle automatically shuffles the stages and brings in 3 new random opponents. Love it. The AI is pretty good too. The AI is definitely easier than other current games, but it feels waaaaay more human and forgiving. Much better for testing setups. Training mode has some interesting features that allow you to test frame advantage and move priority. Very appreciated.

Ash Mai is pretty good too. Her neo-max can really punish people pretty easily and her HD combos aren't too bad iirc.

Gen - Kim seems like a monster with meter. Good Kims put on anchor are a scary thing to behold. I agree about the Leona part, not really digging a charge character in this game. She seems very good but also hard to use. Not sure about the Raiden part - all I know that he was changed from the arcade version since he overshadowed most of the cast. I'd stick with Terry if you like him. He's got good damage and good target combos. A well placed Rising Tackle is great against poorly placed jump-ins (which people seem to struggle with due to being unfamiliar with hopping).

I occasionally did, though that Athena of yours thwarts me a lot. Picked up the PS3 version a while ago, and am definitely enjoying it, but feeling like I can be the worst KoF player ever. Can't combo at will for the life of me so I mostly mess around and play among friends... who beat me most times, but it is all good fun. I currently use, Kyo, Kula and Hwa, which they all manage to click with me, Hwa especially when I tried him out in story mode.

Do your combos usually drop when you start with a jump kick/punch? If so, you might be pressing the button too early. Getting good with hops helps, or just hitting the button later. Also try hitting the 2nd, 3rd, and so on buttons a bit earlier than usual can do the trick for some too.

Jump in lights actually give you more room to combo then heavies, and combing into a light once you're on the ground make air-to-ground combos too easy. You have to break the "Jumping Heavy into Standing Heavy" mindset that a lot of fighters seem to push onto players, and learn to combo off your light attacks.